The good news: Overall, 2011 was WAY better than 2010 for movies. It's unlikely that Hollywood tried to do so, but there were as many good and bad films in the late spring and early summer as there were in the late fall and early winter. The peak summer season was inordinately strong and the usual Oscar-hopeful cold-weather offerings were for the most part lackluster.

The year saw the passing of what will likely be the highest-grossing, most critically-acclaimed franchise in history ("Harry Potter") and the continued presence of a plethora of mostly inferior franchises, sequels, prequels and reboots that all made a lot of noise and delivered relatively little. The sole big bright spot from last year (animation) was essentially AWOL, but the number of overall recommendable original live-action titles rose considerably.

This year also saw the breakout of actress Jessica Chastain who, if she stays on her current career path, might just wind up being the greatest screen performer of all-time. In 2011, Chastain starred in "The Tree of Life," "The Debt," "The Help," "Coriolanis," "Take Shelter," "Wilde Salome" and "Texas Killing Fields." There have been many other performers who have appeared in multiple productions in a single calendar year, but no one has ever done so with the level of critical acclaim in so many quality productions as Chastain has this year. If you consider yourself a serious movie fan, you should go out of your way to see every film in which she appears.

It's time now for my annual year-end list of stand-outs and industry embarrassments. Some choices are obvious, most hopefully, are not. Thanks for reading and have yourself a great 2012.